Some Food Experiments

1. Making Sweet Potato Chips
When Andy and I first decided to embark on a local eating experiment, I was a little hesitant. After all, I attribute a substantial part of my happiness and general well-being to food, particularly the "snacking hour," which inevitably involves some kind of chip, potato or otherwise. How could I give up the coveted can of Pringles or refrain from a pre-dinner chips and salsa? It occurred to me that if I wanted chips to remain a part of my diet during our season of Alabama eating, I would have to make them myself.

So make them I did. As it turns out, making homemade chips is a cinch! All you need is a good mandolin slicer (I bought one for $14.99 at Target) and a pot of hot vegetable oil. I should also mention here that oil is one of our few "non-local" exceptions. We cook mostly with extra virgin olive oil, but on occasion vegetable oil also becomes necessary. When making choices on which products to purchase, we try to keep to the organic and stay away from big name brands. I imagine that we might also try peanut oil when (and if) we get some good old fashioned white potatoes later on. You want enough oil in the pot to submerge your potato slices in a wire basket. In a 6 quart stock pot, I'd say we used about 3 or 3.5 quarts of oil. Make sure that you heat the oil to a temperature of 325 degrees. Each batch of sweet potato slices were fried for about 3 minutes. We experimented with both the red and white varieties of our Baldwin Co. crop, and got more of a natural "potato chip" taste with the white variety. But both had their own rich flavor, and were a welcomed addition to our lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, made with fresh cornbread and habenero cheese from the folks at Sweet Home Farm.

2. Making Flour (well sort-of)
In our quest for all things Alabama, grains have certainly been a hard thing to come by. Fortunately, on our visit to Boutwell Farms we were able to snag a couple of cans of wheat berries (pictured on left) stored from last year's growing season. Melissa Boutwell ensures us that will be able to partake of this year's harvest come May. But what about until then? Well, before we figure out our grains crisis, it's probably best to first master the art of making flour (if it can really be called an art).

First, we tried grinding our berries in a spice grinder. After an initial inspection, we thought we were successful. But when I looked more closely, I saw that the flour was at best coarsely-ground. We soon learned that this texture would work well for making cream-of-wheat, which we have been eating for breakfast pretty regularly. Next, we followed my Mom's advice, and tried a coffee grinder. This worked beautifully and our initial grind yielded about a 1/2 cup of fine-textured wheat flour that we promptly added to our cornbread recipe. After a couple more batches, however, our coffee grinder sadly pooped out. It may have overheated or it may have just been cheap. I should also add that this was a $3 "Coffemate" grinder purchased at an estate sale, so it might not have been up to the challenge. So I guess I'll have to buy another one to see if it's really going to work long-term. Otherwise, we might have to invest in one of those expensive grain grinders.